The Best City

     This is purely empirical. And probably a bit inane, too. Then again, aren't all sports opinions kid of inane?

     I am a New York sports fan. Raised here since age 6 months, never really choosing anyone else to root for over the New York teams. Within that gambit, I have varied a little, for while in law school, I had a passing fancy to the expansion New York Islanders. That would dissipate when I had New York Rangers season tickets form the mid 1980's into the mid 1990's. I had an early fascination with the hapless expansion New York Mets, but not over my beloved New York Yankees, the winningest franchise in professional baseball. I started out with the New York Giants before the onset of the old American Football League and the arrival of the New York Titans who morphed into the New York Jets when they moved to Queens nearby La Guardia Airport. Plus I liked the Nets because they were in New Jersey after a short stint on Long Island, but they never measured up to the New York Knickerbockers.

     So I start out with a definite prejudice towards New York teams. When the prime teams of my rooting interest--the Yankees, the Jets, the Knicks and the New Jersey Devils are not playing, I will cheer for one of the other teams bearing the New York logo (although I am struggling with the Brooklyn Nets right now).  I like going to Mets games at Citi Field. While I haven't been to Madison Square Garden for a Rangers game in 30 years and probably 25 years ago for the Knicks, I always loved the atmosphere at the Garden.

     New York fans are rabid and passionate. The intra-city rivalries are very intense, both for the teams as well as their supporters. Witness the Islanders-Rangers battles in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Or the Mets-Yankees World Series in 2000. Even to a degree when the Giants and Jets get together for their pre-season game every August. I have seen a fair number of these tilts--Islanders-Rangers at both Madison Square Garden as well as the Nassau Coliseum; Devils-Rangers at the Garden and at the Meadowlands. I see Giants-Jets games from the Jets perspective due to my being a 40 year season ticket holder. I have seen the Knicks and the Nets in both of their arenas. I have only seen the Yankees host the Mets at Yankee Stadium, which, while the attendees were decidedly for the Bronx Bombers, resonated with enough Mets fans to make some significant noise.

     There are a whole slew of significant inter-city rivals like the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox; the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals;  the Kansa City Royals and the Cardinals; the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers; Los Angeles Dodgers- San Francisco Giants to name some of the more well-known ones. But that is involving 2 cities or 2 regions.

     In the cities that have two teams in one league, there are a number of blood feuds. The Cubs and the White Sox are tough battles. So too are the Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim when their Freeway Series is played. The Giants fans and Oakland A's fans have no love lost for each other. Oakland Raiders denizens, normally crazed, have no regard for their San Francisco 49'ers counterparts. I believe that the rivalries between the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks is played at a fever pitch. Plus the Los Angeles Lakers share the Staples Center with the now resurgent Los Angles Clippers, allowing the once-moribund Clippers fans to rejoice over the Lakers woes in the past couple of years.

     Winning and losing adds to the equation. Beating a winning team helps to assuage the otherwise bad team's fandom. And when they are even and playing for something meaningful, the fervor is ratcheted up to insanity.

     While Chicago fans may disagree and some Bay Area people might tout their rivalries, the sheer craziness associated with New York games cannot be matched. I am not saying that the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills nor the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers don't have a rivalry--they do. Very few colleges have such rich local rivalries--only USC and UCLA and Duke-North Carolina come to mind in terms of close proximity; forget the intra-state lunacy of Alabama-Auburn in football or Michigan-Ohio State in anything. Many others compete yearly for split state audiences like in Kentucky, Oklahoma or Arizona.  From that perspective, conferences have eviscerated once treasured matchups like Texas-Texas A&M or Pitt-West Virginia.

     It is just not like what emanates from New Yorkers or New Jerseyans, Long Islanders or those from southern Connecticut. New York has its own brand of intensity--the city that never sleeps. Costs are high, money is made here in larger sums and the teams by and large have long histories and areas that they divvied up in terms of a fan base throughout the five boroughs let alone in the Tri-State area.

     I am glad I live here and have experienced the New York major sports market. To me there is nothing like it. Never will be either. Maybe some day these teams can win another championship, too.  It's a pretty long drought for the Mets, Islanders, Devils, Knicks, Nets right now. One can only hope. At least before they win another in the Bay Area with either the Warriors or the Giants and before the Cubs become a dynasty.

     Yes, one can hope.